Outback Ghost (17 page)

‘Well,' he said, trying to visualise Patrick as he looked at her, ‘let's get this show on the road.'

Forgetting Mutton who'd given up barking, Adam turned and reached up to open the door of the truck. The puppy nearly knocked him over in an effort to get to Heidi and Adam dropped the containers. One of them spilled open and scattered chocolate slice all over the ground.

‘Damn.'

Heidi giggled, while trying to protect herself from Mutton's hello. ‘Bad word.'

He grimaced and tossed Stella an apologetic smile. ‘Sorry,' he muttered as he stooped to collect the slice before Mutton noticed it. Now it was covered in dirt, it wasn't fit for much more than the rubbish bin but chocolate wasn't good for dogs and Mutton wasn't clever enough to know that.

Stella dropped to the ground to help him and when they were finished she looked up into the truck, then frowned as if in contemplation.

‘What's wrong?' he asked.

‘There are only two seatbelts in the truck. Heidi won't be able to come with us, so I'll have to follow you into town with my car.'

Not sitting in the confined space of the cab with Stella would give him a few moments to talk sternly to his self-control, so why the hell he said what he did next he couldn't comprehend. ‘How about we ask Mum to watch her for an hour?'

Hesitation flickered across Stella's face and Adam could tell she wasn't comfortable with the idea yet still he pressed the point. ‘She'll be okay with Mum,' he promised, ‘and it won't be for long.'

‘Go play Esther.' Heidi looked up at them although her little arms were still wrapped tightly around Mutton's neck and chanted, ‘Esther! Esther!'

If there was one thing Adam had learnt about Stella it was that she couldn't begrudge her little girl happiness. ‘Well,' she began, still not sounding totally convinced, ‘I suppose she'll be in the truck enough with me once we get started. You promise you'll be good?'

Heidi's eyes widened and she nodded so fast Adam worried she might pull a neck muscle.

‘We'll leave Mutton with them,' he decided. ‘He's going a little crazy cooped up with me.'

‘All right then,' Stella relented, ‘but only if Esther doesn't mind.'

‘She won't.'

The four of them piled into the truck for the short journey to the homestead – Adam in the driver's seat, Stella squished up against the passenger's window and Heidi and Mutton bouncing in between. He had to swallow a yelp and another curse word when Mutton's paw landed in his groin but aside from that, having buffers between him and Stella was a good thing. On the short trip to his mum's, he practiced visualising Stella as Patrick and by the time they arrived he felt confident he'd survive a trip into town and back without making a total fool of himself.

He parked out the front and by the time he'd helped Stella, Heidi and the pup out of the truck, his mum was heading down the garden path.

‘This is a lovely surprise,' she said, lifting one eyebrow as her gaze jumped between him and Stella.

Not wanting her to get any ideas, he opened his mouth to set her straight. ‘Stella has kindly offered to help me with the harvest. She's got a licence that enables her to drive the truck and…'

‘That's wonderful.' Esther beamed, an expression normally alien to her face. ‘And you'd like me to look after Heidi?' She smiled down at the little girl who now stood beside her, then reached out and stroked her hair.

‘Only this afternoon,' Stella rushed. ‘Heidi will be fine with me in the truck the next couple of days.'

‘Oh.' Esther's expression lost a little of its joy. ‘Well, I'd be happy to and if she gets bored or in the way while you two are working, she's always welcome here.'

‘She's a package deal with the dog, Mum,' Adam said. ‘He's making a right nuisance of himself.'

Goldie lifted her head from her perpetual spot on the veranda and let out what could only be translated as a bark of objection. They ignored her.

‘That's fine.' Esther nudged Mutton out of the way with her foot and took Heidi's hand. ‘Come inside, I've got something to show you.'

Heidi went happily without even a backward glance at her mother.

‘You okay?' Adam asked, glancing at Stella who looked like she had the tax problems of a nation on her shoulders.

‘Of course,' Stella lied, summoning a smile to her face. Truth was she didn't know what worried her more – the prospect of time alone in a tiny space with Adam or the thought of leaving Heidi behind. Either way, she was beginning to regret her snap decision to offer him assistance. And strangely, it wasn't that she didn't trust Esther, but rather that she worried what Heidi might say. If she started talking about Lily-Blue, what would Esther make of it? So far Heidi's ‘friend' had only been present when they were on their own at the cottage and Stella prayed that she would stay that way.

Yet, even as she climbed up into the truck alongside Adam, she couldn't get the anxiety to lift. She clicked her seatbelt into place and tried to listen to him – he'd started giving her the lowdown on the various levers and buttons. Apparently, while she'd been silently stressing they'd come to the conclusion that he'd drive into town, show her how things worked at the CBH bins and then she'd drive home to make sure she was okay with the truck before she had to go it alone.

Adam turned the key in the ignition and the engine growled to life. Stella glanced back at the house but Esther and Heidi had already disappeared inside.

‘Are you sure you want to do this?' Adam's deep, concerned voice filled the cabin and seeped its warmth into her bones.

‘Yes,' she nodded, knowing she didn't sound as convincing as she wanted. ‘I just forgot to mention to your mum that Heidi has… imaginary friends. She talks to them sometimes. I hope if she starts doing so today it doesn't worry Esther.'

He chuckled. ‘Relax, Mum will cope. We only need to worry if Heidi convinces her to cook or something. If that happens we'll have to pray they don't burn the house down.'

Stella let her head fall back against the head rest and tried to relax. Adam didn't appear fazed by the idea of Heidi's imaginary friends but then he didn't know the name of the latest one. She opened her mouth, ready to tell him why she felt so uncomfortable, but closed it again before she spoke. How would he react if she told him her daughter had conjured up a friend and christened her with his long-lost sister's name? Would he be freaked out or find it amusing? And what if she told him how living with Heidi's friend was giving her the heebie-jeebies? How things were happening around the cottage that she didn't know how to explain. Would she sound whacko or would he insist on grilling Heidi about her latest friend?

It wasn't like she had any concrete evidence.

Adam must have read her silence as discomfort. As he headed down the long gravel driveway, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel in time to the quiet jazz music that played in the truck he glanced her way. ‘Look, I'm sorry about the other night. I may have overstepped the mark.'

At his reference to their near-kiss, all thoughts of Lily-Blue fled Stella's mind and her body tightened with desire. ‘Oh?' was all she managed to say because her mouth had gone dry.

‘Yeah… I… we both know if Heidi hadn't woken up I would have kissed you and I'm not sure how you feel about that.'

How I feel about it?
She'd barely been able to think about anything else since, but that might sound too needy, too desperate.

She swallowed, trying to return some moisture to her mouth so she could string some kind of words into a sentence. ‘I was flattered.' She hoped she didn't sound patronising. ‘And the truth is I would have kissed you back but it's probably for the best that I didn't. I'm not in the market for a no-strings-attached fling. It's not fair on Heidi, not to mention logistics would be tricky with her around.' Who was she trying to convince? Adam or herself?

He chuckled half-heartedly. ‘I understand.'

‘You do?'

‘Sure.'

But dammit, she didn't want him to understand!

She wanted him to close the gap between them and convince her they could make it work, or better still profess he wanted more than a summer fling. She wanted to feel his lips against hers, to feel the heat of his body seep into parts of her that had been lying dormant for over seven years. She wanted him bad, worse than she'd ever wanted anyone. For once she wanted to do something crazy, a little irresponsible and she wanted to feel some of the pleasure that women her age had a right to feel.

Instead of saying all this, she pursed her lips together to stop from crying, and pasted on her best fake smile as she looked at him. ‘Friends, then?'

He nodded, his own lips curling up at the edges. ‘I'd like that.'

‘So, tell me more about yourself?' she said, feigning cheerfulness as she tried to relax into her seat and ignore the great ball of disappointment that had bunched in her stomach. ‘The other night you told me about your family, but I want to know about you. If we're to be friends I should at least know the basics.'

‘And what are the basics?' He sounded amused.

‘You know.' She counted things off on her fingers. ‘Favourite colour, favourite band, favourite movie, favourite food, relationship history, stuff like that.' She couldn't help herself, she had to add that last bit, didn't she? She saw Adam raise an eyebrow.

‘Well?' she asked.

‘Yellow, Red Hot Chili Peppers,
The Hunt For Red October
, curry and “relationship” isn't really a word in my vocabulary.'

‘Why not?' She knew she sounded nosy but she couldn't understand how someone as irresistible as Adam hadn't been snapped up by some smart woman.

He shrugged. ‘I don't want to have children and most women do.'

‘I see.' Another lie. She didn't see anything of the sort. He'd been so sweet with Heidi and it wasn't hard to imagine him doting on a little girl or boy of his own. She opened her mouth to say just this but he got in first, making it clear his views on relationships and children weren't something he wished to discuss any further.

‘So, when we get into town, I'll introduce you to the blokes at the bins and let them know they'll be dealing with you for the next couple of days.'

‘Okay. How long does unloading take?'

For the rest of the time it took to get into town, Adam told her everything she needed to know about their operation for the next few days. She learnt about quality checks and weighbridges and the mobile wheat bins he had on the farm, which he could fill if she didn't return in time for the next load.

‘You should write a
For Dummies
book on this,' she said with a laugh as they turned the truck into CBH and got into the queue behind another truck waiting at the weighbridge. The man working there looked up and waved at them, indicating he'd be with them shortly.

‘I've lived this for as long as I can remember. I could probably farm in my sleep, which is a good thing considering the hours we have to put in during seeding and harvest.'

‘Do you love it though?' She wanted to know whether he did this because it was in his blood or because it was expected of him.

He shrugged. ‘Most of the time. It's an unpredictable occupation, but when you get good rains and the crop thrives there's nothing like it. I know that because of what I do people are eating. That's feels pretty good.'

‘Yeah, I bet. Did you always want to do it or was there a time you had other dreams?'

He tapped his finger against the steering wheel again, drawing her attention to his long, stronger, manly fingers, so much that she almost missed his answer due to salivating at the thought of those fingers touching her.

‘About once a year I decided I wanted to run away from the farm and do something else with my life,' he admitted, ‘but what I wanted to do changed. Over the years I've contemplated becoming a vet, a policeman, a pilot and joining the army, but I always came back to farming. I could never seriously contemplate turning my back on the property that has been in Dad's family for generations.'

‘That makes sense.' Which was more than she could say for her hormones right now.

‘What about you?'

Before she could reply, the man in charge of weighing the trucks in and out waved them forward. Introductions were exchanged but no time wasted with small talk or niceties. Stella appreciated this because although she felt confident she could drive the truck, she didn't want to be the one who made a mistake at this end and slowed things down. She made mental notes of everything that happened from the moment they drove onto the CBH lot until she climbed up into the truck's driver's seat and drove them out.

She planned to work hard the next few days, as hard as any of the blokes who'd been doing this work, because maybe if she focused on the task at hand, she could forgot her ‘boss' just happened to be the sexiest man she'd ever laid eyes on.

‘See you when you get back. Drive safe.' Adam closed the truck door for Stella and stepped back as she started the engine.

She smiled down at him, turned the stereo up loud and waved as she started off towards the road. Bopping along to the music as the truck bumped over the gravel, she thought back fondly over the last four days. Although this wasn't the holiday she'd envisaged when she'd arrived with Heidi a couple of weeks ago, Stella couldn't deny she was having the time of her life.

Sitting up high in the truck and driving the grain into town gave her a kind of buzz, like she was part of some great big plan, doing something awesome. It helped alleviate some of the heartache she tried to ignore but felt whenever she thought about being away from her own family's farm.